"I say thirty factories, because I think that number would be sufficient to manufacture the product of the sugar beet in quantities sufficient to supply the home market. Each of these thirty factories would use up 500 tons of beets per day, for it is held that a factory ought to consume about 500 tons of beets per day to do a profitable business. Now, it will cost to build each one of those factories about $500,000, and this would mean, to begin with, an expenditure of $15,000,000 for the construction of those thirty factories. To run one of these factories, including the factory hands, clerks, chemists, experts, etc., about 200 hands are required. Multiply that number by thirty, and you have 6,000 people who would be directly and regularly employed in these factories, besides all the labour of mechanics, artisans and workmen that had been employed in building them. The season for manufacturing the product of beet roots usually lasts about 100 days, and if each one of the thirty factories used up 500 tons a day, that would mean 1,500,000 tons of beets in a year. Now, what would be paid to the farmers who grew those beets? At an average price of $44 per ton, the farmers would receive $6,000,000 a year, a large sum to be distributed directly to them."

These factories would also consume about 240,000 tons of coal a year and 150,000 tons of lime-both of which Canada produces. The number of cars required to handle the material for these factories would be about 150,000 and about that number of acres of land would have to be put under cultivation in sugar beets-the farmer getting 60 per cent. of all the money paid out in connection with the industry. The by-product, or pulp, had been found very useful as feed for sheep and cattle and was considered equal in that respect to hay. Without a bounty Dr. Sproule declared that it was unlikely that the industry would be established in competition with neighbouring States where a large bounty either had been, or was now, given and where also the import duty on sugar was $1.68 per cwt., as against the Canadian duty of 98 cents.

It required half a million dollars to start a factory properly and investments of such a character were unlikely without substantial assistance. Previous failures, he stated, had been due either to incapacity in management, poor machinery, or lack of capital. The Ontario Government had voted $75,000 a year for three years in this connection but he did not think the amount of time sufficient. The term of the grant should be at least five years. Part of the expense in starting the industry was due to the necessity of sending experts amongst the farmers to instruct them in the cultivation of beet-roots.

Mr. John Charlton opposed the bounty system. He declared that in a number of the American States no bounty was paid and that in Michigan this business had been found so profitable after a brief trial that the bounty was abolished. New factories continued to be built, however, and sugar beet raising and manufacturing was now one of the most profitable industries in the State-or in the

United States.

The total cost of the raw material was about $4.50 and the converting of it into sugar about $1.50 while the selling price of the sugar was from $9 to $10. "There is no bounty required for that business. The only danger is that it will be overdone because the profit is so great." Mr. J. H. Lègris quoted the various Canadian efforts in this direction-the sending of Mr. Edward Barnard to Europe by the Quebec Government in 1870 and by the Ottawa Government in 1872 to make inquiries upon the subject; the treatise by Mr. Octave Ouimet, of Quebec, in 1875; the reports of the Quebec Department of Agriculture and of Mr. Wm. Saunders, of the Dominion Experimental Farms, in 1892; the book written by Mr. Alfred Musy on the subject in 1897. The industry had been enormously protected and bounty-fed in Europe and to-day there were 360 sugar factories in France and over 400 in Germany. In the United States there had only been 1,000 tons manufactured in 1888. This had risen to 40,000 tons in 1896 and was now over 100,000 tons.

Comparing sugar refining under high protection with sugar beet raising, Mr. Legris stated that for every ton of sugar manufactured the refiner hardly shows $5 to the country while the beet sugar maker spends at least $20. In factories worth from two to three million dollars the refiner gives employment to about 2,000 workingmen. The buildings of the (beet) sugar factories, which would entail an expenditure of from fifteen to twenty million dollars, would for a time give employment to mechanics and, once ready for the production of the sugar, they would require over 10,000 labourers, without mentioning the army of farmers and agricultural labourers engaged during the summer season in the cultivation of the beet." At this stage of the debate Mr. Fielding, Minister of Finance, moved its adjournment, merely stating that the Government recognized the importance of the subject and would express its views at the proper time. Mr. Clarke Wallace strongly opposed this course and pointed out that on two preceding occasions the question had been similarly treated by the Government. The House divided on Mr. Fielding's amendment and the vote stood 59 for adjournment, 50 against. The original motion of Dr. Sproule-which was withdrawn on March 21st-was as follows:

"That, having regard to the large number of importations of sugar into Canada for home consumption, and that it has been demonstrated beyond a doubt that the cultivation of the sugar beet in the Dominion is not only feasible but it is being successfully grown in many parts of the country at present; therefore, in the opinion of this House, in order to stimulate the farmers of Canada to engage in the growth of this valuable product, and also to encourage the establishment of beet-root sugar factories, a bounty should be offered for all beet-root sugar manufactured in the Dominion during the next ten years."

During the Budget debate there was some general discussion of this question and Mr. Fielding, on March 14th, stated that the free

admission of machinery for the manufacture of beet-root sugar would be continued during the year. He refused. however, to consider the question of a bounty and expressed the belief that previous Canadian experiments with this industry had not been sufficiently successful to warrant such encouragement. Mr. Clarke Wallace, on March 18th, denounced the Government for a concession "which costs the Government nothing and is worth just about that to the beet-root sugar industry." He then spoke of the importance of the matter. "We imported last year 336,000,000 pounds of sugars and syrups valued at $8,350,000, the freight on which from far-off lands would be certainly $1,000,000; and there was $2,380,000 of duty paid on it-making it altogether $12,000,000 when it arrived in the Dominion of Canada." He urged that the beets could be grown and the sugar made in Canada and pointed out the interest of the farmer in this particular development.

Speaking on March 26th, Mr. Hackett, of Prince Edward Island, pressed this matter upon the attention of the Government. If the granting of a bounty by the Ontario Government was considered sufficient in the case of beet-root sugar how was it that the grant of a similar Provincial bounty was not thought enough in the case of iron and steel? The farmers contributed in taxation toward the latter bounty and it was stated that the amount paid out in the next five years would be $15,000,000. Is the Finance Minister going to turn his back upon the farmers? While they have to pay for the bounty on iron and steel is he not going to assist them with a bounty for this great beet-root sugar industry?

Dr. Sproule followed and stated that to manufacture the 336,000,000 pounds of sugar now imported into the country would require between 30 and 40 factories. They would involve an expenditure of $15,000,000 for construction and equipment and would employ some 10,000 operatives directly and indirectly. "These thirty factories would consume beets raised by thousands and tens of thousands of farmers and the farmers would be engaged in a line of industry that would give them four times the profit they now get out of any line of industry that they are engaged in at the present." Two days later, Mr. Henri Bourassa, a Liberal in politics, took much the same ground. "I am not a believer in bounties on principle, but, if under a free-trade Government, bounties are to be given to capitalists, to owners of iron mines and iron smelters, why should not a similar favour be extended to the Canadian farmer-especially when that would encourage competition against one of the largest and best known trusts in this country." He went on to assert that under the recently revised tariff 8 cents more protection per hundred pounds had been given to the sugar refiner.

Horse Rais

ing and

Considerable attention was paid during the year in Canada to the possibilities of raising more horses for the British market, and especially for the British army, than had yet been done or attempted. At a meeting of the Canadian Horse Breeders' Association in Toronto, on February

Remount

Stations

7th, the Hon. G. W. Ross, Premier of Ontario, referred to the magnitude of the horse industry and to his hope that through the promised intervention of the Governor-General they would be able to obtain a Remount Station for the Province. The Provincial Government would co-operate with that of the Dominion in making representations to London upon the subject. In the Ontario Legislature, on March 21st, the Hon. Mr. Dryden moved an Address to the Governor-General which stated that for several years much encouragement had been given to horse-breeding by prizes at the autumn Exhibitions and by the exertions of the Canadian Horse Breeders' Association; that the establishment of a Remount Station would further this process and in turn provide large numbers of available animals for use by the Imperial army whenever required; that it was hoped the attention of the Imperial authorities would be called by His Excellency to the importance of this matter.

Mr. Dryden pointed out in his speech that there were horses in Ontario valued at $55,812,290 in 1892 but that in 1899 the value was only $42,713,557. There was, however, a steady increase since 1897 when the figures had reached $36,111,805. The trade had now an upward tendency and only required a little help to receive a great impetus. Trade in horses with the United States had decreased from $1,123,339 in 1893 to $225,625 in 1900, but had increased with Great Britain from $274,310 in 1893 to $1,729,508 in 1896. About a year ago Major Dent had been sent out by the War Office authorities to purchase some horses here. He arrived in Toronto on April 15, 1900, and in a short time had shipped a thousand horses. Finally, out of 6,000 submitted to him, he had sent 3,500 to the front and they had been found exceedingly serviceable. "So well pleased was Major Dent with the class of horses he obtained here that he stated he was prepared to recommend the establishment of a Remount Depot in Canada to be used as a permanent recruiting point at which it would be possible to obtain horses for the Imperial service." At Mr. J. P. Whitney's request the debate on the subject was adjourned. The Address was later on passed unanimously. About this time the Premier received a letter from Lord Strathcona, dated March 14th, in which he stated that Lieut.-Col. Dent would visit the Dominion again as a result of representations which he had made, as Canadian High Commissioner, to Mr. Brodrick. Colonel Dent was to purchase 1,000 horses, visit the North-West and report upon the question of establishing two or three Remount Depots in Canada. He arrived at Montreal on March 28th and spent some months in Canada, purchasing a number of horses and expressing himself as well pleased.

Meanwhile, on March 19th, Mr. Gilbert Parker, M.P., had drawn the attention of the Imperial Government to the fact that British agents in this connection had purchased up to date only 3,738 horses in Canada for the use of the army in South Africa as against 7,901 from Australia and 26,310 from the United States. Lord Stanley, in replying for the Colonial Office stated that the shortness of

the Canadian season had something to do with this and also the higher price of horses in the Dominion. He said it was hoped to establish a Remount Station in Canada. Speaking on October 17th, at New Hamburg, Mr. Ross said he had just received a letter from Lieut.-Col. Dent, in which that officer stated that he had purchased altogether in Canada 6,311 horses, and that 4,005 of them had come from Ontario. This, the Premier claimed, was the result of his suggestions to Lord Strathcona. In the Report of the Farmer's Institutes for Ontario published during 1901 there appeared an article by Lieut. John McRae, R.C.A. describing the value of the horses sent from Canada to South Africa. Speaking of the Ontario ones, with which he was chiefly familiar, he stated that they were mostly farm horses and though heavier in appearance seemed to have greater powers of endurance than the British horses. Many of them were sold after a year's arduous campaign with the Artillery for $115 each while similar British batteries would have been remounted again and again in that time.

On May 14th, Mr. N. Boyd introduced in the House of Commons the question of assisting horse breeders to obtain and reach a market for their animals. It was, he said, a question of deep interest to the people of Manitoba and the North-West Territories. "There can be no question as to the suitability of that portion of Canada for the raising of horses such as are now being purchased in very large numbers in other portions of the world, and of which large numbers are now being purchased in other sections of the Dominion. In proof of the value of the Western horse he instanced the endurance and hardihood of those used by the Mounted Police and the usefulness of those which went out to South Africa. "We can grow any kind of horses that are needed for any purpose." What the Department of Agriculture had done for cheese and butter and other agricultural industries it should do for horse-raising in the North-West.

The trouble was not in the production of these horses but in the training of them for a market which was uncertain and the preparation for which was expensive. To bring the producers and purchasers together was all he asked of the Government. There was the demand and under proper conditions there would be the supply. Mr. T. O. Davis, of Saskatchewan, endorsed the suggestion and said that it would be a very good thing if the Government would interest the Imperial authorities in the North-West as a source of supply. Horse raising had been profitable there some years before but it had been seriously injured by low prices. There were millions of acres available where cattle could not be raised and yet where horses would flourish. The industry could be made profitable if only the ranchers could depend upon a market for their labour in training and raising the animals.

Mr. F. Oliver stated that in his district much money had been spent in raising army horses, but the market could not be reached and the industry had failed. The class of horse required had changed and this was now to the advantage of the West. It was a peculiar